First reflection, SEM1902 :)
#include<stdio.h>
int main(void)
{
printf("
Hey there!
Thank you for paying attention thus far. The font and the size can be eye-wateringly boring, I suppose, but allow me to assure you that everything, down to the font, has been selected to properly reflect the sobriety of this blog and its contents. Just kidding, that's the default font and size. Without further ado, should you choose to read on, thus as follows will be my personal, heartfelt, genuine and no-holds barred reflection of my communicative strengths and weaknesses, as well as the challenges I face.
If you could not already tell from the first paragraph, I do have an issue (with myself, at the very least) with speaking concisely to the point. While I have no issue in flourishing my writing (and other modes of communication, including Morse .-.---..-) with parables and all manner of figures of speech, I do feel that I have an issue in cutting down my sentences and content to what is simply necessary.
Prima facie, I felt that my inability to be concise with points is, on a deeper level, due to the very fundamental levels of how our society functions. By no means am I blaming the society at large for my inept communication skills - I am simply making an observation. Because society places much care and concern on the externals, the looks, the outer beauty, the garnishing - and thus has lost focus on what truly is important - I believe I am influenced, even in my speech and communication, to act in that way to what society might perceive as acceptable - to pad my speech with beautification, unfortunately sometimes much to the disregard of what the point should be. I have to remind myself always that there is a time for flowery speech and there is a time for sober, straight-to-the point point-making. Focus on what is important. The flowery bits can come later.
However, upon deeper reflection, it seems that I have problems in discerning what components of the sentences are truly important and what parts are simply chaff. It seemed to be the case, because I found myself linking one point to the next, and before you know it, the entire chunk of ideas are simply linked together, like an irreversible, headache-inducing Linked-List program in C (the SEEMS students would understand :) and I was not kidding about the parables part in the above paragraph). It became an issue when I was simply assaulting my listeners with facts piled on top of one another, all until someone would ask me the sobering question: "So, what's the point?"
"What's the point?" That's a question I believe every communicator has to ask himself before launching into a tirade of words. The point is what the sentence is centered around. It is the proverbial chocolaty center of the candy pop. This by no means implies that our conversations have to be monotonous or dull; in fact, flowery speech may well illustrate the point in a better manner. The point is the sole driver of speech. People attend talks, go for lessons, pay attention at meetings because they want to listen to what the point is. The moment one loses focus of the point is the moment the communicator loses his audience. I might have already lost you back in the second paragraph of my loop-de-loop of points, but if you had stayed with me till this point (no pun intended), you'd understand why this would be a problem - at the end of the day, listeners care for the point being communicated across.
At the end of this module, I hope to be able to achieve two things, which, concisely put, are:
Get to the important points of communication
Read nonverbal cues.
The first one requires half the work to be done on my end, not surprisingly. To isolate the important points of what I want to say, I must have a clearly organised mind. I mentioned that I had a problem with linking one fact to another and piling them on top of each other - an organized mind would determine what facts are ommitable and what facts are crucial to the communication of the point.
I hope also, by the end of the module, to be able to read nonverbal cues better. As I had learnt previously from my Communications course in polytechnic, nonverbal communication makes up about 50% of communication. The occasional glance at the watch. The wandering eyes. The periodic yawn. The leaning away from the conversation. I want to be able to make sense of these things by the end of this module, so I can better read my dear listeners, not to the ends of my personal gain, of course, but rather so I can be sure I am not boring them to death with words.
I will be looking forward to my future lessons in this module. There is much to learn, and although I have a diploma in Communications already, communications still remain the biggest irony known to mankind - an absolute enigma, in that there are still so many aspects of it yet to be described and fully understood in the psychological world, yet an absolute necessity to the survival and growth of the human race to where we are today. Communication scientists around the world work tirelessly to uncover the inner workings of a human mind - how communication drives social psychology, and vice versa - and how one's childhood experience may affect his communication methods.
May I mimic them in their childlike pursuit of knowledge.
Until next time,
Gan Kai ler
");
printf("
Edited posts:
josiahsem1902.blogspot.com
sem1902darrell.blogspot.com
");
return 0;
)
int main(void)
{
printf("
Hey there!
Thank you for paying attention thus far. The font and the size can be eye-wateringly boring, I suppose, but allow me to assure you that everything, down to the font, has been selected to properly reflect the sobriety of this blog and its contents. Just kidding, that's the default font and size. Without further ado, should you choose to read on, thus as follows will be my personal, heartfelt, genuine and no-holds barred reflection of my communicative strengths and weaknesses, as well as the challenges I face.
If you could not already tell from the first paragraph, I do have an issue (with myself, at the very least) with speaking concisely to the point. While I have no issue in flourishing my writing (and other modes of communication, including Morse .-.---..-) with parables and all manner of figures of speech, I do feel that I have an issue in cutting down my sentences and content to what is simply necessary.
Prima facie, I felt that my inability to be concise with points is, on a deeper level, due to the very fundamental levels of how our society functions. By no means am I blaming the society at large for my inept communication skills - I am simply making an observation. Because society places much care and concern on the externals, the looks, the outer beauty, the garnishing - and thus has lost focus on what truly is important - I believe I am influenced, even in my speech and communication, to act in that way to what society might perceive as acceptable - to pad my speech with beautification, unfortunately sometimes much to the disregard of what the point should be. I have to remind myself always that there is a time for flowery speech and there is a time for sober, straight-to-the point point-making. Focus on what is important. The flowery bits can come later.
However, upon deeper reflection, it seems that I have problems in discerning what components of the sentences are truly important and what parts are simply chaff. It seemed to be the case, because I found myself linking one point to the next, and before you know it, the entire chunk of ideas are simply linked together, like an irreversible, headache-inducing Linked-List program in C (the SEEMS students would understand :) and I was not kidding about the parables part in the above paragraph). It became an issue when I was simply assaulting my listeners with facts piled on top of one another, all until someone would ask me the sobering question: "So, what's the point?"
"What's the point?" That's a question I believe every communicator has to ask himself before launching into a tirade of words. The point is what the sentence is centered around. It is the proverbial chocolaty center of the candy pop. This by no means implies that our conversations have to be monotonous or dull; in fact, flowery speech may well illustrate the point in a better manner. The point is the sole driver of speech. People attend talks, go for lessons, pay attention at meetings because they want to listen to what the point is. The moment one loses focus of the point is the moment the communicator loses his audience. I might have already lost you back in the second paragraph of my loop-de-loop of points, but if you had stayed with me till this point (no pun intended), you'd understand why this would be a problem - at the end of the day, listeners care for the point being communicated across.
At the end of this module, I hope to be able to achieve two things, which, concisely put, are:
Get to the important points of communication
Read nonverbal cues.
The first one requires half the work to be done on my end, not surprisingly. To isolate the important points of what I want to say, I must have a clearly organised mind. I mentioned that I had a problem with linking one fact to another and piling them on top of each other - an organized mind would determine what facts are ommitable and what facts are crucial to the communication of the point.
I hope also, by the end of the module, to be able to read nonverbal cues better. As I had learnt previously from my Communications course in polytechnic, nonverbal communication makes up about 50% of communication. The occasional glance at the watch. The wandering eyes. The periodic yawn. The leaning away from the conversation. I want to be able to make sense of these things by the end of this module, so I can better read my dear listeners, not to the ends of my personal gain, of course, but rather so I can be sure I am not boring them to death with words.
I will be looking forward to my future lessons in this module. There is much to learn, and although I have a diploma in Communications already, communications still remain the biggest irony known to mankind - an absolute enigma, in that there are still so many aspects of it yet to be described and fully understood in the psychological world, yet an absolute necessity to the survival and growth of the human race to where we are today. Communication scientists around the world work tirelessly to uncover the inner workings of a human mind - how communication drives social psychology, and vice versa - and how one's childhood experience may affect his communication methods.
May I mimic them in their childlike pursuit of knowledge.
Until next time,
Gan Kai ler
");
printf("
Edited posts:
josiahsem1902.blogspot.com
sem1902darrell.blogspot.com
");
return 0;
)
compile error
ReplyDeletein main file: unknown argument in function printf;
Hi Kailer, thanks for the lecture in which you had just gave me, it gave me more understanding on your pursuits and your depth in communication. I feel that sugar-coating your words actually get better results for most people. In which I agree that you are proficient in such, for during presentation last semester, I have witness how your linguistic prowess enabled you resolve certain queries in which may seem difficult to digest. Furthermore, I agree to an extent with the fact that bombarding your listener with countless of information would overwhelm them. A suggestion would be to adjust the intensity of your conversation based on the other parties interest, based on their response. In which brings me to your thirst to perceive non-verbal queues, I truly hope that you would amplify your attributes in such aspects by the end of this course. For it allows you to be able to read your listener more effectively and accommodate the intensity of your conversation appropriately.
Regards,
Josiah
Hi Kai Ler,
ReplyDeleteI find the point where you have mentioned about the society tends to cherish the outer appearance is mostly true. Till today, people still tend to judge a soldier taking up a seat in the train after after booking out from his training camp. I agree that many time many people would jump into conclusions based on what they choose to believe. The society should change itself by accepting the truth, and not based on their own personal judgement, and encourage people to be more more confident in being truthful and straight to the point.
As for non-verbal cues, it is indeed a big part of communication. In our digital world I find that an increasing amount of people are neglecting such form of communication, for example, not making any eye contact while speaking with someone and gluing their eyes on the black mirror (phones, tablets, etc).
In summary, I agree with you that the rule of perfect communication is still an enigma to many of us, and in my opinion, I guess there are no right or wrong, and probably it is based on how the society perceive what perfect communication is all over again. I guess it is a cycle.
Regards,
Rachel